I’ve been into trail running and mountainy stuff for a long time. I did my first big trail running event in 2013 (the Hout Bay Trail Challenge) and have spent most of the years since then loving running and hiking in the mountains. Because I mostly spent time in places with amazing mountains, I never had a Garmin or used Strava - it just seemed like something that would detract from the pure enjoyment of being outdoors. I also didn’t do many events: I generally preferred just going solo or with friends. So I never had any idea whether I was getting faster or fitter or anything like that.
That all changed when we moved to Oxford. Table Mountain or the Pyrenees are no longer on my doorstep. My mountain mojo is diminished, I even sold my ice axe and crampons. So I finally caved and bought a Garmin Forerunner 255s, and now virtually every run, cycle and swim lands on Strava. Sometimes I’m sad that I don’t more kudo-worthy stats about previous runs and adventures, massive climbs in the Canadian Rockies, 14 hour slogs in the Pyrenees and getting lost in Jonkershoek. But I’m still really attracted to the more intrinsic motivation of not owning a Garmin, and envious of the people that have that.
I’ve also started allowing myself the financial indulgence of entering more events for the motivation and community, and seeing new parts of Oxfordshire and the UK. So I thought I’d note some of those down and try do an update once a year or so. This isn’t every official thing I’ve done, but it’s some of the more interesting (to me, anyway) ones.
My first outing with my running club, the Headington Road Runners. A team relay of 7km each, starting and ending at Iffley Sports track. Probably my first time ever running “competitively”, super fun! Ran the loop in 4:00 min/km, which I think was fine. Cute very-studenty prize ceremony afterwards in one of the university halls… Teddy Hall I guess?
A gravel cycling “sportive” organised by Glorious Gravel. We stayed in a cute little inn in Hurstbourne Tarrant called the George and Dragon, which has sadly since closed. They have the start in rolling waves, I had a late morning and started about last. And then spent the day trying to catch everyone else. I’m probably a bit too competitive for this kind of thing; most people are just there to have a good day out… But loads of fun nonetheless, a great route around the high plains (ha) of Salisbury.
I trained really hard for this: lots of intervals, 5k at-pace runs, 10k runs with a mix, all the stuff. And then it was crazy hot on the day, I went out at a 3:40 min/km pace and just got slower and slower. Heart rate pegged at Zone 5, I didn’t do very well.
A cycling sportive, 100 miles through the scenery north of London. Essex I think? A closed-road event, of which there are only four in the UK! Except they closed the roads on us once and we had to wait behind a bunch of police motorbikes for 20 minutes. After that I got into an amazing paceline and held on to 40-odd kph for as long as I could. On my gravel bike and knobbly 45mm tires. Got funny looks but wasn’t the funniest one there.
It’s like an anarchist’s idea of a bike race. Just a gpx file and some rules. 170km of road/gravel around Oxford, but the “race” only happens across a bunch of timed Strava segments. A big day out. I was in the top 1-2-3 for most of the segments, but messed one of them up by not realising it had started until half-way in… I’d go back and re-do it if I could. Probably the closest I’ve ever come to winning something, it was a pretty small field!
Taking in a lot of the same scenery as OxDuro. An off-road running relay covering the full extent of the Ridgeway, again with the Headington Road Runners. I was leg 8, peak heat of the day. Pretty tough, I held on to our 1st/2nd position but definitely lost some time. Super complicated logistically getting the team spread out all over the Ridgeway and then home again.
3.8km swim, 16.5km run. You haven’t heard about swimrun? It’s a very silly sport, but kinda suits me. It’s from the Swedish archipelagos, where it makes sense. You swim and run from island to island, keeping your shoes on in the water and then running in your wetsuit. In Oxford it’s a bit contrived but still fun. The water was only 12 °C! I was the only one to swim in a full length wetsuit, horrible to run in, but at least I didn’t abandon on the swim. I came 12th out of 50 odd!
Training for this with a two-month-old baby was tough. But just doing 5-7km runs and the occasional 10-12 km was enough. It was a perfect cold morning, about 5 °C for most of the run. I finished in 1h28min without pushing very hard. Hoping to leave some alpha for a future PR! Super festive and fun, got me so pumped to do more running races.
I think I entered this the night after the Oxford Half. Baby-life continued, the longest runs I got in to train for this were a 30km and a 17km run. It was a lovely run, perfect weather despite the time of year. I managed to sneak in at 4h59min for a pace of 5:58 min/km and comfortably in the top quartile or so. Quite a slog, the last 10km I was getting very slow. Realised I need to get more cushiony shoes for long runs (have since bought some Topo Mtn Racers).
Fun small 10k trail running race with two brutal climbs. I started out too far back, as I always do: everyone always seems so serious and I haven’t done enough races to know where I stand. But the first 4km were flat and wide, so I got ahead. And ended up 8th out of 150 or so!
What do you do deep in winter with a baby and little time? Put the bike on a turbo trainer and compare wattage output I guess… Zwift is brutally honest about what counts on mostly flat routes on a perfect surface where you never have to stop or turn: watts. My watts/kg didn’t count for much until one very hilly race, which I won, and then get disqualified from and forcibly promoted to a higher league. I’m not bitter.
A new event started by some champions from Headington Road Runners. I did quite well I think, pushed very hard around the tough hilly course. I then joined a 120km group cycle a few days later and had to bail after 40km (I had to still get home, note). Body was still wrecked.
A “sprint” triathlon: 0.7 km swim, 20 km cycle and 5 km run. I was 87th/1200 on the swim, then 410th on transition. Then 140th on the ride, 500th on the next transition. Then 47th on the run and 71st overall! Triathlon is a bit boring so you gotta talk numbers I guess. I had fun, it was a lovely enclosed route with no cars and thousands of spectators. Very expensive for 1h25 of fun.
Despite hardly cycling in the spring, I thought I could have a shot at really winning it this year. Sadly some pros turned up and smoked the field, but it was still a great day out. I rode with a group of Condors for the first half.
I think “real” orienteering is running around forests in the dark and being very last. But the TVOC kindly organised a bunch of “urban” races for normal people: navigate quite easily around various bits of Oxfordshire and tick off (automatically with an app running on your phone) checkpoints as you. For more or less points. I tried to catch-‘em-all once, turned off my brain and just ran really hard. I didn’t manage.
A cheaper triathlon, and double the distance! The lake was 20 °C or something, which meant we weren’t allowed to used wetsuits. We’re tough! 60th/300 on swim, 280th on T1, 50th on ride, 270th on T2, 29th for run, 48th overall. I made a spreadsheet and I woulda been in the 20s maybe in theory if I wasn’t so damn slow at the transitions. I’m going to work on that before I do another triathlon. And use slick tires on my bike rather than big gravel tires.
My first ever cyclocross race, what a blast! I slightly stupidly started right at the back, so I spend 10 laps passing half the field to come middle-th out of 40 odd people. Easily the hardest 20km I’ve done! I have a new bike with electronic shifting and it tells me I shifted 645 times.